It turns out there’s a three member state commission (named the ‘Board of Review’) – where each Board member is paid $120,000 – for working part-time.

Of course, three appointments of that magnitude had to be a temptation to any keen-eyed politician – so, as might be expected, a month ago a committee of legislators suggested taking two of the appointments from the Governor and giving one to the Speaker of the House and the other to the Senate President.

That didn’t sit too well with Dale Folwell, the head of the Employment Security Commission, where the ‘Board of Review’ is located, so he attended a House Finance Committee meeting where he explained the legislature’s idea was not just unkind but dead-wrong. When that appeal didn’t turn the tide, voice sharpening, Folwell told legislators the way he saw it his agency was being bullied.

That, normally, wouldn’t have ruffled many feathers but this time the legislators in the room knew Folwell was talking about one particular legislator who was sitting right there in the room too.

Now the General Assembly is a small, insular place – not unlike a sewing circle – where rumors fly back and forth like wildfire and most legislators had heard the rumor that Representative Julia Howard last fall, had wanted the Governor to appoint her to the ‘Board of Review’ but Dale Folwell had said, No way. No how. No time.

When Folwell fired his broadside at her in the committee, Representative Howard, who’s no shrinking violet, wasn’t intimidated one bit.

She shot back Dale Folwell’s outburst was ‘totally out of place’ then Folwell shot back that Howard ‘just wanted to get herself appointed to the best part-time job in NC’ and then Howard shot back Folwell was just spinning a tall tale because she’d never sought that appointment and never would.

House of Cards is a big hit about the conniving that goes on in Congress. But, if they make a sequel, they might take a look at politics in Raleigh.